TynanSylvester wrote:Task prioritization is, I think, probably the #1 more critical skill for a developer and it's one I've tried very hard to
get good at. Because it's a multiplier on everything else you do. So many times, devs (including me, sometimes)
spend absurd amounts of time perfectly doing the wrong thing.

Instincts mislead, in this case, because the work that is emotionally satisfying and 'safe-feeling' to do is very rarely
the work that will add the most value for players.

The real key is to not ask this question: "Would this be cool if added to the game?" That's a very easy question and
people gravitate towards it because it's cognitively comfortable.

The real question that needs answering is, "Of every possible thing we could do to this game, what would add the
most value per cost?" That's a very hard question because its scope encompasses every possible change to the
game, which is an essentially uncountable and unimaginable set. It's cognitively uncomfortable and actually
impossible to answer in your head. You have to do it systematically.

Gamasutra has an excellent article on Rimworld up today, which touches on the game's influences (a not-so-opaque Dwarf Fortress) and its generation of opportunities for player-created stories through multiply-interacting systems.

I haven't really been watching this one as something put me off it. The systemic aspect is really attractive to me... but the description of the gameplay as trying but failing to delay the eventual inevitable extinction of the colony just leaves me cold.

I don't think of myself as a gamer who needs to totally "win" every game. But I do value fairness. I do care about having a reasonable chance to be successful. Guaranteed failure sounds like yet another game developer determined to bonk me upside the head with some "message." I'm just not interested in that.

Even so, I hope Rimworld sells well for its system-interaction design, at least. I'd like to see more games like that.

At any rate, it's a good article that people drawn to Rimworld might enjoy.

Flat, Rimworld has difficulty levels. The "recommended" difficulty level does generally lead to inevitable failure, but I must say that trying to delay that inevitable failure is very fun and exciting - more so than you would ever expect. Certainly more so than I've ever seen in any other game. You actually feel accomplished after having lost, which is unusual, considering, after all... you did just lose. It's because there's such immense satisfaction in struggling onward despite all odds. The game's "storyteller AI" does a neat job of pacing.

At lower levels of difficulty, there's more time between events, more good events, and they ramp up more slowly, giving you the chance to take your time and enjoy building up a colony, and the ability to easily push through to the endgame and see all Rimworld has to offer. That's not to say that it's not possible to win on the "recommended" settings - just that it would be very difficult indeed - a true struggle.

I don't think there's really any message. I think it's just a different style of game. It sounds outwardly like the recommended setting would be a pain to play, but I actually found it preferable to the lower difficulty levels. (Note: the "recommended" setting is one level below the absolute hardest, with about three or four difficulty levels beneath it. There's plenty of room to find something comfortable. At the easiest level, it's basically just a building game with very rare, small incursions by enemies that are easily fended off. You could easily find something that suited you, I think.)

Silverware wrote:Question, do you like the idea of Dwarf Fortress (or actually like Dwarf Fortress)?

From my two failed attempts to penetrate the mysteries of Dwarf Fortress, both of which ended in me throwing up my hands and saying, "Why doesn't anything seem to be happening?" I'm going to have to go with liking the idea of DF vastly more than its current implementation.

I may research Rimworld a little more -- thanks! (Not that I should be playing games when I should be working on finishing my own, but.... )